OC's deadbeat bank

It's Saigon National Bank in Westminster, which caters to the area's Vietnamese business community and has yet to make a dividend payment as part of the federal government's bailout program. In all, Saigon National has missed seven payments - the most of any bank - since receiving $1.55 million in December 2008, the smallest amount of any bank. Once a bank misses six payments, the Treasury Department has the right to elect two directors to its board - and the Saigon National folks seem open to such an arrangement. In an interview earlier this year with BailoutSleuth, CFO Roy Painter said the missed payments were not a sign of trouble. Right.

He said the bank was in a "unique circumstance,'' because it must get approval from 67 percent of its 270 shareholders to pay the dividends. "That process takes time," Painter said. "We have not been able to get the 67 percent." Painter said at the time that, after unsuccessful attempts to get permission to make earlier dividend payments, the bank had secured shareholder approval to make its $21,000 payment for the quarter ending Feb. 15 -- pending approval from its regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency.

Since that interview, several more payments have been missed. Keep in mind, however, that Saigon National is the tiniest of banks and that the overall TARP program has fared better than expected. From the Washington Post:

[Administration officials say] the estimated cost of the program has continued to dwindle (the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office recently lowered the projected final cost to $66 billion). They say that while the missed payments from an increasing number of community banks is a legitimate problem, the amount of taxpayer money at stake pales in comparison with the government investments in firms such as General Motors and insurance giant American International Group. In addition, they note that taxpayers have already recovered three-quarters of the TARP funds invested in banks.